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A and M v Royal Mail Group [2015] is a child case so CPR 21.12 applied. It does not apply in full to non child cases and it was also first instance.

There a few of issues with the Judgment of DJ Lumb.

He allows (well, uses for the purpose of his calculation) grade D costs throughout. This is a child case where you would have thought it would be a good idea to let a solicitor actually have a brief look at the file, at some stage. Apparently not. His base costs figure is accordingly set artificially low

He states that the Pre Jackson fixed SF was 12.5% taking into account more and less riskier cases and then departs from it.

He disallows the ATE but then fails to take into consideration CPR 54.7 (d) PD, the risk to the solicitor for any disbursements.

He disregards all the risk factors almost with the wave of a hand in a way only those sitting in ivory towers can afford to, including Part 36, small claim costs, fraud and LVI allegations.

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